Concolor
by KuwaNeko
Summary: All he ever wished for was a normal life; but for better or worse that just wouldn't be his case. And it's all their fault, the Mew Mew's, right?
1. Chapter 1

Ok, this is my second fanfic, first in this section, It's a pleasure to meet all of you, I hope you like my little fic. Ok, off to business

I'm really bad at giving names so please bare with me in that mater,

I don't own 'Tokyo Mew Mew', if I did, I would have already hung the guys that made 'Mew Mew Power'

* * *

The trip to the zoo had gone pretty well, as always some of the students managed to get lost form the groups to look for something 'more interesting to do than just look at a bunch of stinky animals' as they said; but off course Koji wasn't one of them… always following the rules, never giving trouble to any teachers, and always calm.

Just last week he had been in a Red Data Animals exhibition. Being of a rich family it was a must to appear at such events, and yet, that was not the only reason for which he had gone, for, after all, he himself was interested in the matter. Now he was looking at some of the animals he had just seen in those files.

The day went on really calm. The kids that had escaped started returning to the group; lunchtime was near, and if you were not already present by the time that food started to be served, there would be no food for the missing ones (a brilliant way to insure that at least at certain times the group would be complete).

From his position near to the end of the line, Koji could see every 'lost one' approaching the group. Meanwhile he calmly talked to one of his partners, his only true friend amongst the class, Kein. Something had been troubling him since the exposition, he wasn't sure of what it was, but it kept bothering him. His senses had been far better then usual, his hearing, his smell, an increasing like for meat (the rarer the better), and even a sharp 6th sense, which had kept telling him there was something bad about to happen...

Suddenly Koji heard something; a yell perhaps? but one of pure anger… many other yells, yells of sheer terror followed this one. His partner put his hand on Koji's shoulder "What's the matter?" Koji himself hadn't noticed he had stopped moving, and was now looking towards the way they had been coming from; "We're going to loose lunch if you don't hurry"

Koji really didn't hear what he said, a chill ran through his spine, no one else seemed to notice what he had just listened, and the yells were approaching. Then realization came to him, the angered yells were from a chimp. Koji turned around, grabbed air and yelled at the top of his voice "A chimp's loose! Run!".

Kein looked at him with a weird look on his face.

"JUST RUN!" he repeated himself. The others looked back at him with the same look.

"Oh my! Mister Perfect wants to start a racket for the first time in his life..." The most popular of the class looked back at Koji with a defying and provoking glance.

Koji could hear the chimp approaching, and now some of his partners could hear the racket, though they still couldn't make out what was happening, even some started to run. "Are you afraid that I'm saying the truth? Or are you SOO scared that you just CAN'T START RUNNING?", yelled Koji back, his voice almost braking with both fear and strength; his glare sent shivers down his partner's back, his words both a challenge and a warning.

From the end of the sidewalk a chimp started running their way, upon seeing it everyone ran with all they had... in a few instants Koji had ran almost to the beginning of the group, he was rather startled by the ease with which he had done that; he wasn't bad at sports, but sure enough he never had been that fast before...

Unfortunately the chimp ran far faster than any of them could. Koji heard a yelp from the back of the group; Kein could hear the breathing of the chimp almost on top of him. Koji turned around just to see how his friend was being caught by the wrist. Without even realizing it, he turned around and ran in between all his partners, charging straight towards the chimp.

Two rounded furry ears (popped) crouched at the sides of his head and a tail stuck out behind, rather camouflaged by the sweater he used to tie around his waist, he didn't notice it, nor did the partners whom he passed; all of them too worried in running or too scared to even be able to see it.

The chimp had his hand firmly wrapped against Kein's wrist, his mouth completely opened and about to bite as Koji burst against him, grabbing his hand, making him let go; Koji's other hand grasped the chimp's shoulder pushing him backwards. Both of them rolled through the sidewalk and down the cliff that was next to it. While rolling the chimp was able to get hold of Koji biting hard against his shoulder.

Koji muffled a pained grunt; he hit the chimp on the side of his head to make him let go. Finally at the end of the cliff both rolled separate ways... The chimp incorporated fast, Koji barely had enough time to stand, he managed to put his left arm on the way of the charging chimp's mouth, which closed on it. Despite the pain, Koji managed to hit the chimp hard enough to make him let go the arm, but further angered by the resistance, he grabbed Koji and threw him towards the lake.

Koji almost drown as he fell backwards in the pond, the water had a horrid taste on it; the bites stung as the water touched the exposed flesh. Finally emerging, he stepped on the grass border that limited the pond, and looked towards the chimp, who was boasting his victory, as he decided where to run this time.

'Such a stubborn weakling' The chimp turn around having noticed his opponent getting up out of the water. His jaw just dropped as the one who he saw was definitely not who he was expecting.

"I won't let you hurt my friends" Koji's voice was harsh and raspy, a mixture of anger and pain; and yet he knew to himself that he was just bluffing. His right shoulder and left arm hurt badly. The chimp got over the shock and charged against him

"I'm finally free, I won't go inside that cage again, and 'you' are not stopping me!". Taken aback by the words, Koji missed moving and the chimp centered a powerful punch to his side. This time a growl escaped his mouth as he curled protectively towards the pained side.

The chimp charged again but this time Koji hit him first. With the chimp in the ground he grabbed him and shacked him from side to side. Now the chimp yelled in terror, hurt and unable to fight back in his position; he saw blood and grabbed as hard as he could on the hurt shoulder. Koji bit harder and shacked the chimp once more, as the chimp lost strength in his grip, he threw him with all his strength towards the nearby wall of a little vending place that stood only feet away from the lake.

The chimp hit hard against the wall. Koji looked in awe as he lost balance and fell backwards yet again into the pond. Not only the chimp was not moving any more, but the reflection he got to see in the building's window was not his own. A brownish gray colored fur covered him nearly from toes to the tip of his nose, except for a white coat which started right under his nose and covered down to his belly, and a bit darker color around his upper jaw and on the tips of the ears and tail.

Yet again the nasty water filled his mouth and he fought to reach for fresh air. He finally reached the grassy area near the border; he looked at the immobile chimp leaning against the wall, next to his own reflection, that of a human except for the pair of fluffy ears that crowned his head. He really didn't notice it though; his mind had already stopped processing long before he had come out of the water for the second time. His head finally fell into the damped vegetation, eyes slowly closing, following the blankness of his mind; neither did he notice the sound of the many running footsteps that approached the scene.

* * *

Here went the first chapter. Hope you liked it; if you did, or if you didn't, or if you didn't understand and got questions, or anything at all; Please Review! I like reviews!

EDIT: found some little mistackes and decided to correct them


	2. Chapter 2

Hi, I'm back with a second chapter, a very long chapter... mostly because I didn't see where to cut this one out. I'll cut to the action now...

I don't own Tokyo Mew Mew, their characters or anything present in the manga nor anime (most of which has still to appear in my fic...)

* * *

The scene that security found was, in one word, unexplainable. There was blood all over the place, obvious indicator of a struggle, but that was understandable. What wasn't, was some of the prints they found, and the outcome of the battle.

The chimp that had gone into rampage was knocked out, in what was obviously not a position you put yourself in, but more one you get tossed into. And as unexplainable as the prints, was the bite mark on the chimp's shoulder, as well as some deep slashes that seemed to be none less than claw marks. One of the guards found a child half inside the pond. He was as much hurt as the chimp, but the bite marks on him were obviously the chimp's fault.

"What are you waiting for?" a strong yet nice feminine voice came from the back side of the group. She had long black hair tied in a low ponytail that went down to the half of her back, she had a fair face, and emerald green eyes. Her name, Haruna?, and she was none other than the best vet to ever work in this zoo. "You can research all you want 'later'; right now we have two lives to take care for!"

The scene that security found was, in one word, unexplainable. There was blood all over the place, obvious indicator of a struggle, but that was understandable. What wasn't, was some of the prints they found, and the outcome of the battle.

The chimp that had gone into rampage was knocked out, in what was obviously not a position you put yourself in, but more one you get tossed into. And as unexplainable as the prints, was the bite mark on the chimp's shoulder, as well as some deep slashes that seemed to be none less than claw marks. One of the guards found a child half inside the pond. He was as much hurt as the chimp, but the bite marks on him were obviously the chimp's fault.

"What are you waiting for?" a strong yet nice feminine voice came from the back side of the group. She had long black hair tied in a low ponytail that went down to the half of her back, she had a fair face, and emerald green eyes. Her name, Haruna, and she was none other than the best vet to ever work in this zoo. "You can research all you want 'later'; right now we have two lives to take care for!"

At her words everyone went back into action. They moved the chimp's limp body onto a stretcher and took him directly to the veterinary.

"Haruna, Is there any ambulance left? This kid's in a pretty bad shape…" the security guard that was caring Koji asked her.

"All of them left with the other injured… we didn't think there would still be anyone else left."

"I'll go call for one!"

"No, take him to the vet first!" Security looked at her with disbelief marking their faces. "We treat from rats to elephants here, what makes you all think we can not treat a human?" she said with a defiant look in her face and a pompous tone, which changed an instant later to a serious one "Plus, by his state, I don't think he can resist without treatment till the ambulance gets here. Get Moving!"

After a moment of hesitation everyone decided it was best to do what she said and carried Koji to the vet, Haruna followed near behind.

* * *

The front side of the vet got crowded with people as news got out that the chimp had been not only captured, but beaten up by someone, and that a kid had been found near the chimp. Most of the crowd was composed by Koji's group, and thus they knew who the kid was. Kein hadn't restricted himself in telling what he had seen; and by now all of his partners had heard how Koji had heroically jumped against the chimp, saving his life; and how both had rolled out of sight.

Rather indifferent to this commotion, security was having its own bad time closing out the zoo and trying to decipher what had happened; but what worried them most was the fact that no matter how they looked at it, there had to be another animal loose, and though they looked, and kept looking, they couldn't find any, and no other animal was missing in the predators cages…

Meanwhile, inside the vet, the wounds had already been disinfected and stitched up. Haruna worked as best she could on the kid, and now she only prayed that her decision not to call the ambulance hadn't been too selfish. They hadn't used any anesthesia since it was most improbable that he would wake after such blood loss and beating.

In the next room, the chimp had already been treated, having only one bite and four stright lines of claws to be stitched, had helped in the process being a lot faster. And now he was laying in quarantine, as the anti-anesthetic was making its work (they had given him anesthetic as procedure, the chimp was, after all, a wild animal).

"I'm amazed he's even alive… so foolish to jump against a grownup chimp, not even three strong adults could have beaten him…" she had just finished bandaging the wounds and was holding a syringe, something to help fight any possible infection. She had just put the needle in when a cry came from the next room; the chimp had just woken up and was panicking. At the sound Koji incorporated and jumped to the nearest corner in the room, the needle still in his arm.

No one moved, too surprised to do so, or just not grasping the complete picture. Despite the wounds Koji was, not only awake, but rather uncomfortably looking, standing on his four limbs, rather crouched and fiercely growling bared teeth to everyone in the room. Even the slightest movement was responded with another growl as he switched his attention in between its perpetrator and scanning the room in search for the rattling chimp. If someone would have asked those present then, what they had thought, or felt, they would have probably said the image they got was that of a cornered feline ready to fight for his life.

"Koji! Buddy you ok?" the door slammed open as Kein rushed inside, having been able to pass through the guards unnoticed, he couldn't have entered in a weirdest moment…

For a split a second Haruna felt as the big feline did his last desperate movement for freedom, she yelped at the idea and turned towards the door. She wasn't the only one who had felt the same, at least half her team had done the very same; but at the door Kein was still there, untouched and with a puzzled look, trying to make sense of the little act he was looking at.

Haruna turned around, in Koji's face an expression only recognizable as relief shone, just before the eyes of the kid hazed and he lost strength in his limbs, promptly falling unconscious once again. It took a while for anyone to actually react.

"Hey! What was all that?" Kein finally broke the silence as he ran towards Koji.

"I have one for you, how did you get here?" Haruna grabbed the kid before he could get any closer. "And whose was the idea not to use anesthesia?" Everyone laughed nervously, it had been a silent agreement not to use it... specially considering anesthsia was pretty dangerous as it is, no one had dared even thinking it as a posibility (specially since they were treating a human)

"What's going on here? Koji is hurt! And what was all that about?" Kein struggled to get free of Haruna's grasp as he tried to get near to Koji.

"So, your wild friend's name is Koji." She gave the struggling kid to one of her partners and carefully approached Koji. She then lift him and took him back to the stretcher where she checked to see if he had reopened any of the wounds. Fortunately those stitches are made to stand such kind of movements, she sight relieved and turned back to the other kid. "Well then, who are you and how did you get here?"

"I'm one of Koji's partners, Kein. He saved my life…"

* * *

"I got it!" exclaimed a young man entering the vet, he had a veterinarian uniform shirt on.

"About time!" answered Haruna with a smile on her face, beckoning for someone to bring the VHS and TV

"It wasn't easy, but a friend of mine in the security group managed to make me copy of the video of the vending place's camera; perhaps we can get some answers too.

They put the video and pressed the play button; the screen went alive with the image of the scenery in front of the little shop, everything calm and completely empty

"He cut it to the part where the chimp appears; sadly it's a stationary camera, so it didn't record everything"

Just as he said that, both the kid and the chimp rolled into screen; the chimp, rolling out of sight but soon enough returning and charging at the kid. Those looking stared dumbfounded at the screen, as the kid was first bitten and then thrown into the lake and out of view.

The chimp started to boast, and suddenly stopped turning around sharply, even with the poor quality of the video, the change in the chimp's attitude was obvious; if anything, he seemed scared. They saw the chimp charge out of view just to reappear moments later like if he'd been hit pretty hard on the torso. One of the chimps arms moving defensively towards the chest.

And then a loud gasp was listened in between those in the room. They had expected it, but seeing the actual thing is different; a large feline jumped into the cameras view and ran towards the fallen chimp, biting him in the shoulder and forcefully shaking him from side to side.

Then, with one last strong shake, they saw the chimp get thrown towards the shop and out of view, the camera shook with the strength of the impact, and the feline lost balance and fell into the lake; then nothing, no movement in the water, nothing; not until security and the vet group got to the scene.

There was utter silence in the room, no one really knew what to say, someone rewind the tape back at the point where the feline appeared and froze the image.

"Has security checked on the predators cages? Are they sure no feline is missing?"

"That was the first thing that they did, after seeing the prints, and double checked after seeing this. There's no mistake, there's no feline missing from their cages."

"Have they checked the lake? It could have drowned!"

"That's what they're at right now; but there's still nothing" then he paused for a moment and turned around, looking back at the image "I know the quality isn't good, but it might help security to know what kind of feline it is..." he finally added, looking back at the rest of the staff.

"Well," said Haruna, taking a good look at the frozen image "for one thing, it's neither lion nor tiger, just too small..."

"Guess it's also not a black panther" interrupted Kein, he had been allowed to stay after explaining things (or rather no one had been able to take him away)

"Technically there is no such thing as a 'black panther'" corrected Haruna "they are either leopards or jaguars with extremely black fur" she added explaining it the simplest way she could put it for the kid "though you do have a point in the color of its fur, though it could still be a leopard..."

"aahh... where am I?" a rasped, troubled voice sounded from behind the group, everyone looked back; the hurt young kid was doing his best trying to stay sitting with what was obviously a lot of pain. His eyes turned from the screen to those present; and then toward his parner "Kein, glad to see your fine" he said, managing a smile

Kein reacted by jumping next to him and squeezing him with all his might "You idiot! Don't ever do that again! You almost got killed because of me!"

"ahhh... let go, let go, letgoletgoletgo or 'llreallyberesponsible form'death..." managed to choke out while truly unable to make the move and separate his overly happy friend

Finally realizing his actions Kein let go and start promptly apologizing; to be finally cut off by non other than Haruna herself "You truly awake this time?"

"This ...time?" Managed to choke Koji in between troubled breathing

"It's fine if you don't know, you've got a couple of broken ribs, you'll have to learn how to breathe again" She answered sarcastically "I won't lecture you on how very lucky you were, even being able to survive. You're at the zoos vet, and I'm the chief veterinary."

'The vet? Great! The very last thing I needed...' thought Koji to himself; he could remember the entire fight with the chimp, but he hadn't been really sure until he saw the video.

"...a puma..." he said to himself, not even realizing he had whispered it loud enough for anyone to hear.

"What did you say? A puma? Did you see it?"

The kid sharply turned his face away 'shit, I just screwed myself', then noticing how obvious he might be looking he said "I don't know, it's what it looks like; in the video, I mean…"

"How can you tell? The quality is too bad to be sure… did you see it? What do you remember?" Everyone pressed on.

"I... remember rolling down the cliff, fighting the chimp, and ... I can't remember anything after hitting the water" he didn't like lying, it was his motto not to do so, and thus he was very bad doing so when he did; yet this was just too much… 'it is true, I can't remember anything after hitting the water, but I just can't say hitting it for the second time… it isn't lying, at least not completely'.

"Then how do you know it's a puma?" pressed on Haruna "didn't you see it?"

"No, I didn't" he really hadn't 'seen' it, had he; you can't look directly at yourself, can you? "I think I didn't, p-perhaps … a reflection… I… I don't know! But the form of the body doesn't fit a leopard's, the coat seams rather single colored, but like you said he is too small to be either lion or tiger, not even a jaguar at that..."

"He?" Inquired Haruna "How do you know it's not a 'she'"

Koji shrunk a little in his sit; if he really wanted to save his own skin he'd probably do best just keeping his mouth shut, he'd already said too much… "'he', 'she' I don't know!" He forced himself to lie "'it' still doesn't seem like a lioness either… still to small…"

"The problem of that theory though" added another of the veterinarians there "is the fact we don't have any cougars in this zoo. Then where do you suggest this one came from?"

"You tell me; didn't you already say there weren't other animals missing in their cages?" Koji answered sharply; having enough of the interrogation he looked at his watch, the hour their trip ended would come soon. His ride would probably be there soon; too soon. He promptly got off of the stretcher, landing in legs that seemed more like jelly, he would have fallen flat had Kein not caught him half way down.

"I don't think you're ready to walk just yet... how long have you been listening?" He said with a smile that could have easily been pity.

"I need to go" Koji managed to say, grabbing firmly of his friend's clothes for support, while trying to get to the door.

"Calm down 'tiger' there's an ambulance waiting for you just outside." At the comment, she received a pretty nasty glare, which she tried hard to dismiss as pain from the wounds.

"No, I can't go with them…" Koji tried hard to reach the door while still leaning on Kein for support, but the other boy didn't move this time, almost forcing his wounded friend to stay. Koji looked at him with what seemed like a weird mixture of a plea and an order.

"Buddy, you should do what she said" Kein told him, a worried look on his face

"I'll get in trouble if I don't get home on time." Koji pressed, still trying to reach for the door.

"Is it about her? Man, you're already in trouble as it is, or you think she won't notice that." He added pointing to his friend's chest.

Koji looked at himself, noticing for the first time that he actually had no shirt on, just a bunch of bandages both on his arm and his torso. He groaned with displeasure, looking around for his shirt, just to stop moments later, figuring there wouldn't be much of a shirt left anyway.

"I need a shirt..." Absently mumbled Koji to himself

"I don't really get what's going on with you, but you're crazy if you think we'll let you out anywhere else that into that ambulance" Haruna's voice was firm, and she was now standing in front of the door, acting like an additional barrier.

"You can't force me, I don't have time to waist here explaining everything, I got to go home, now, and as unnoticed as possible! I'll go to a doctor later…" He tried to yell but it, at most, came like a barely forceful answered.

"Then that's another thing you can't do, bud; theres cameras and a bunch of people out there."

Koji nearly fell, suddenly loosing strength in both arms and legs all at once. Kein grabbed him firmly, saving him from the floor yet again. "… cameras…" he whispered, a tone of utter hopelessness and defeat.

"This is just the reason why I became a vet instead of a doctor…" Haruna sighed heavily. "You can use the back door; but you'd best come back here and explain everything, got it?"

The other people present gasped in disbelieve. Koji looked up, gratitude painted in his face, as a spark of hope appeared in his eyes "Tha"

"Don't you dare!" Haruna cut him out harshly "If you drop dead somewhere it's not my fault" She then looked away and mumbled. "I'll probably get sued for this…"

Kein helped Koji up, working as his support. "Then I'll see you later, chief" said Koji looking at her one last time.

* * *

The back door of the vet faced many of the animal's cages, it was certainly a faster way to get to them; and as the simple back door it was, it had probably been mostly unseen and thus the cause no one was parked outside of it.

"You sure you don't want to go to the hospital" Asked Kein, still really worried for his friend.

"There's a doctor at my house, though I'm not really looking forwards to seeing him either…"

"You can't go unchecked! Damn, you almost got mauled back there!"

"Shh!" Hushed Koji with urgency, "The point of coming out from there was not to get seen, it'll be for nothing if you get us caught!" 'and personally, the mauling is in the bottom of my problems right now…'

"And what if the cougar jumps up on us, after all, we are quite the lonely, defenseless preys right now; perhaps we should have stuck a little longer around the vet, only till they caught it…"

"He wont, his probably too hurt to do so" added Koji in a somewhat joking tone; though Kein was all but amused by it.

They were doing a remarkable time out, considering Koji's condition, and the fact he really shouldn't be able to move at all, or even be concious. "I thought I'd be finding you here" came a voice just a few steps ahead. To say both kids got scared would have been an understatement, they really thought they had got caught.

From around the corner, and really well hidden, came out a group of their classmates. "You mean, 'We'd' find you, Rikuta" added one of the girls in the group.

Koji looked at them, and back at the corner, like waiting for a camera to appear out of it as well

"It's only us" Added Rikuta, alias Mr. Popularity; "We all guessed you'd be trying to do your quiet little disappearance act so we decided to mount guard on the exit rout."

"All of us wanted to come, but that would have attracted too much attention so we had a little jan-ken to decide those who would come…" said another boy in the group

"And I got myself in either way; I… had something to tell you" continued Rikuta, now looking to the ground "I… we are all thankful… Thank you very much!… for… saving all our lives… and …" The boy's voice got lost there

"Continue Rikuta! Wasn't there something else you wanted to tell him?" another guy pressed on.

"I'm sorry for how I was acting back there…"

"He nearly begged us to be included" Another girl said

"Tha-that's not true!" The boy forcefully added, still unable to hide the little blush he had.

"Now isn't that cute, he just confessed his love, now comes the kissing!" joked another of their partners, this one getting a full smack on the head for the comment.

Koji looked at everyone, a thankful look on his face. Just like he had been called earlier, he had, all his life, tried to be as perfect as he could possibly manage; thus not many of his partners liked him; the teacher's favorite, that is. But as he could see right now, neither did they actualy hate him.

Rikuta looked at Koji up and down, and started taking his shirt off. "This is also a reason I came" He added, giving the shirt to him "You'll get into trouble if you get home with one shirt less wouldn't you?"

"Than…"

"Don't thank me for something like this, dammit, you saved our lives; a damned shirt shouldn't be something to thank about." groaned Rikuta, looking away. "you should try putting your sweater on too... to hide that arm"

Koji smiled at him, trying to put the shirt on with difficulty. The rest of his partners helped him put it on. As well as the sweater. Non of them letting him thank them about it.

"You will have to tell us what happened back there later, Ok?" One of them said, "as payment for the help". He added in a playful tone

"Yeah…" He answered a bit wary

"Now go, or you'll get in trouble, wont you? And be careful, theres ought to be cameras on the exit too."

* * *

And there certainly were, both kids were more than just slightly amazed, given the number of cameras Kein had seen at the vet's entrance, he had expected, a bunch less here.

"Koji... I don't think you'll be able to get out..."

"I have to... my ride's already here..." answered the boy, motioning to a black car set near the news cars.

"...but you can bare..."

Koji cut through Kein's protest shutting his friend's mouth. "I'll be fine... I need to go, and you know it..."

Kein just frowned. "You don't look fine, how will you get out and make them believe you are, when you can't even stand on your own"

Koji turned his face to the ground, and with a strangled grunt he stood up strait and closed his eyes, giving the deepest breaths he could manage.

Then, all too sudden, Koji let go completely of Kein and stood up completely on his own. His eyes bolted open, and for an instant, Kein would have sworn they glowed golden. Koji's stare was cold, his eyebrows slightly furrowed; and not an inch of him seemed to be in pain.

'He's got his mask on' though Kein not being surprised by this; he knew Koji well and had already seen his 'mask' before. He looked away, a worried frown in his face. "Good luck" he whispered as he saw his friend proudly walking towards the zoo's entrance.

"Someone's coming out! " came the roar of the press as they saw Koji approach

Koji walked proudly out the zoo, just to be fully surrounded by the whole bunch of reporters that stood outside. They all started raining questions at him all at once; "Tell me young man, do you know the injured kid?" "Is he from your school?" "Is he fine?"

Other than being unable to move forward, Koji looked completely normal; aside from the slightly annoyed look. He glared at the reporters, many of which even backed up a bit. "I'm sorry, but I really don't know much myself" he said as politely as he could, his voice strong and clear "so its best I don't talk, It would be terrible giving you misplaced information"

"But you were waiting for news and... " Koji cut of the chatter amongst the reporters with a swift wave of his hand, it was rather amusing how easily he seemed to control them.

"I too was waiting for information, but I'm running rather late on an appointment, now please, I must leave ". The reporters stood in a rather shocked stillness for an instant, just to burst into a bunch of questions, moments latter.

"But you certainly know...". Started one of the reporters before being cut short by Koji's answer

"I said!" This time Koji's voice did denote the anger and frustration he was feeling, the press all shut up like stricken by an unseen punch; "I must leave, now let me pass! " Those three last words had such energy in them, that as one a path was opened through the group of people, and they saw the kid elegantly march away and into the black car parked just so far.

* * *

"Young master, you are rather late" came the voice of the man in the drivers seat "I heard there was a commotion in the zoo and came early"

"Has mother heard about it?" asked the young boy at the man, a tingle of worry mixed in his raspy voice

"No master... are you not feeling well?" he asked now looking back through the rear-view mirror, noticing he couldn't see the kid, he looked back, where he found the kid laying through out the backseats couch.

"I'm not..." he managed, in between troubled huffs "Will we make it on time?"

"Just barely..." answered the man, now a worried look on his face "may I ask what is wrong?"

"The commotion hit me hard... if I fall asleep, please... do wake me ...before we get there..." was the kids answer, and he didn't make any other noise apart from the troubled sounding breaths, though he didn't fall asleep, perhaps just too worried that he wouldn't be able to wake on time.

* * *

Well that's it for this chapter, liked it? was it too weird? please tell me what you thought.

It might take me a while longer to upload next chapter, since this is the part of the story I really haven't planned.

EDIT: again, just correcting some little words now and then, that's all


	3. Chapter 3

Hi, sorry for the long wait... extra long chapter as an apology  
I don't own Tokyo Mew Mew

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He wondered for how long he had been running, minutes? hours? did it really matter?, either way he felt like it had been days, he was sweating profoundly, his clothing pretty much soaked by now, and yet, that did little to cool him off.

He stopped at the base of a tree to take a breath, it wasn't like he couldn't stop, no one was chasing him; and now, finally registering his own exhaustion, he was angry that he'd wasted so much energy on running like a damned fool.

The tree felt moist at touch; pretty much like everything else that surrounded him; even the air, had he not known better, he would have thought he was breathing water itself, for how thick and humid it felt. This was why sweating didn't help at all, after all, what good does it make, if it just won't evaporate.

He panted hard, trying to see if it helped in any way on cooling himself. Exhaustion had finally driven the panic stricken mind back into soberness, of course, who wouldn't get scared if he suddenly found himself in the middle of a forest, and a deep forest at that. Trees grew so close one to another that their branches and leaves nearly intertwined together, creating a vault which made it feel like a miracle that any light made it through.

And in the space between the trees, grew all sorts of different plants, from gigantic leafs that seemed like umbrellas, to nearly any plant you could imagine or even dream of, but grass.

It was rather astonishing, how green everything was, not even the trees had much brown in them, all their trunks green with either moss, lichen or climbing plants; so much so that their trunks seemed to be furry. And the ground itself was hardly any different; he was really amazed he had been able to advance at all in its thickness

Having regained his breath, he decided to continue, this time walking; carefully pushing his way through the dense vegetation. His footing was unsteady, the ground beneath him moist and with a layer of rotting leaves; he wondered how he had managed to run up till now without falling every two steps.

"Woah!" Koji nearly tripped, beneath his foot, what he had thought was a firm surface of leaves, had actually felt like stepping into air. Curious Koji pressed the surface, which easily gave in; then he took his foot back, seeing in awe as, like a cushion, the leaves returned to their previous firm looking position.

After a while of pushing the leaf cushion up and down, trying to decipher only by doing so what was beneath the leaves that made such movement possible; he concluded it was probably some roots or twigs, and decided to continue walking; after all, it wasn't like if solving that 'mystery' would help him get out of here...

Not long after, he found himself in front of a really muddy patch of soil, the terrain on his left inclined upward, and from the looks of it, there was probably a minuscule water spring somewhere up there, which left the wet path of soil along its downward flow. Unfortunately for him, that also meant he would probably have to climb a rather long way up to find some place where it wasn't slippery to pass.

Sighing, Koji decided to try and jump the patch; it wasn't that large a gap after all. He took a few steps back and sprang into full run, taking as much impulse as he could; clearing the visible part of the wet area, he nearly yelled in achievement as his feet reached the other side of the drenched path.

"Gyaaaaah!" that you can't see it, doesn't mean it's not there; the instant his feet had touched the ground, the mud beneath the leaf covering had given in; Koji found himself rolling down the cliff, desperately trying to grab into something, to stop his fall.

He finally stopped near the base of the cliff, wondering how he had managed not to collide with any trees on his way down; he didn't bother on standing up though, just trying to calm his still racing heart.

Koji took his time, to check his condition; to check if he had hurt himself, or broken something; and finally noticing everything was there, and even though everything was sore, he really wasn't hurt he sat up, just now noticing how extremely dirty he was, from dirt to dead leaves in different states of decomposition pretty much covered his entire body. He shook off as many as he could before attempting to get up; he couldn't remember ever being this dirty in his entire life

There was a small tree, not much thicker than a broom stick, growing just within his reach, and he decided to use it to help himself up. That was another mistake though; the tree itself would have easily supported his weight, but not so did the soil beneath it; like if the tree hadn't even been rooted at all, it went loose and fell, together with the kid

"How is such a thing even possible? Did it not even have roots at all?" bellowed Koji, more than just slightly angry at having fallen yet again.

He looked at the base of the tree, and the place where it had originally been planted; a rather big amount of soil clung to the roots of the tree, almost perfectly reflecting the hole in the ground.

Curiosity getting the best of him, Koji looked into the hole; it really wasn't deep, hardly the length of four fingers to the deepest part; in its sides, in an almost perfect succession of layers you could almost literally see how the leaves faded, until they became soil; rich black soil(aka compost). Though, even more interesting was, at the bottom part of the hole, instead of that rich soil, was an orange sleek surface; clay.

No wonder the tree came down, the roots were still to superficial; clay is too hard, and as for nutrients, it doesn't work that well. If you were to take away all the leaves and black soil, it wouldn't be weird for the trees to suffer from lack of nutrients. The leaves that fall also work as micro climates for billions of insects and other small and mysterious creatures; then they would decompose and become soil, returning their nutrients to the ground for the trees to feed again; a perfectly balanced, and mostly auto-sufficient ecosystem.

Finally snapping out of his scientific trance, he mentally knuckled himself; it had always been a habit of his to space out into anything that perked his interest; even to the point of forgetting everything other than that he was inspecting; just like that while earlier, when he had stepped on the leaf cushion; he had even done so once he had slipped and bruised his elbow, fascinated, looking at the small drops of blood slowly seeping out from the bruise while somehow ignoring the sharp stings it gave him.

Either way, this really wasn't a moment to be spacing out like that. He took the tree up, and with some difficulty broke it to a size similar to his own; he didn't want to trip like that again; then, finally standing up straight and stable, he looked around and frowned 'did the light get dimmer?'

Under the dense vegetation, there was no way to be sure about in, but it did seem to be dimmer than a while before, "this is bad..." the words escaped his mouth

"basic survival skills... basic survival skills" Koji mumbled to himself while lightly hammering his fist against his forehead, like if trying to shake an idea into appearing, 'geez, why does no one ever teach things like these?'

"Fire!" he yelped finally remembering something 'animals are afraid of it! And it will keep me warm at night!'. Koji patted himself up and down; 'matches, where?...' Of course he didn't carry matches; what kind of teenager does, he didn't smoke... who else would carry such...

'Matches are rather new, how did people make fire before...? Wood... stones?' he looked around no stones to pick on, but there was quite a lot of wood. 'Rubbing sticks is another way, right?'

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"tsk..." 'You have got to be kidding me!' Koji fumed to himself finally giving up on the fire, both his hands sore and probably even blistered. He had been too foolish to think he would actually achieve it any way. 'So you can't start a fire from wet wood, and guess what; there's nothing but wet wood around here.' he thought while giving the discarded utensils a somewhat murderous smirk

He had had too few time, either way; he knew that he had felt the time to be a lot shorter than it actually was; since he had been running against time, but even as short as it had felt, it couldn't have been more than half an hour since the moment he was certain the light was dimming, till he was completely enveloped by darkness

Koji slumped back against the tree that was just behind him. His eyes moving from one side to the other, hoping they would get accustomed to the intense darkness soon enough, there wasn't much he could do now either way.

'If I nearly killed myself while still being able to se, moving around in this darkness would be blunt suicide'. He tried nearing himself as much as he could to the trunk of the tree, somewhere in his mind hopping it would be like a little cave to protect him  
'A shelter, I needed a shelter...'. The teen stretched a hand to take the improvised staff, wincing slightly at the pain of his now raw hands.

A mighty lightning crossed the sky, momentarily illuminating the scenery; 'a thunder storm?... I... if only I had a shelter...' Koji slumped back even further into the tree, making space in between the leaves, if just, slightly hopping that when rain started to fall, they would block at least part of the water.

Thunder followed, and suddenly, all noise stopped. In any other situation, Koji would have immersed himself in his curiosity; why, even though the night is so much quieter than the day, even though normally at this time even the smallest sounds seemed so loud... how can it be that there is complete and utter silence; something he was certain he had never heard; as if all living forms had stopped breathing, as if time itself had suddenly stopped

Then a deep and powerful roar exploited from somewhere in front of the boy. His heart made a painful throb in his chest and he nearly forgot he had his staff, his makeshift lance, it nearly falling from his now opened, paralyzed hands.

His eyes darted to the direction where the roar had come from, wide and terrified, trying to scan the area in front. Then there was a muffled sound of leaves being pressed, a wet twig bend-breaking softly, and silence again; 'a step'.

Remembering the improvised weapon, Koji lowered his stick, pointing it in the direction of the sound, and pressing himself even closer to the trunk of the tree behind him, if that was even possible. There was no running away, he couldn't move around the tree, being trapped in a canal the irregular tree trunk made, and even if he could, without being able to see, he wouldn't get anywhere...

There was another muffled step, Koji strained to pinpoint the exact location of whatever creature was there; a low rumble resonated through the air. Koji could barely hear it above his own heartbeat, pulsating in his ears. He clutched the staff/lance with all his strength, his brain no longer registering the pain his raw palms felt at the contact.

Lightning parted the sky yet again; like if it had been waiting for the start signal, the hulking creature sprang towards the kid in a swift yet blundering motion. The thunder followed, even though the light of its creator was still illuminating the scene; the powerful sound extinguishing the small in comparison roar of the grotesque creature that now seemed to be gliding in mid air, and the yell of the kid as he readied himself as best he could for the creatures attack

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Koji woke up with a startled cry, nearly jumping out of his bed in the process, movement he regretted doing that very instant as pain shoot through his entire body like electricity. Involuntarily, his entire body tensed due to the pain, shooting yet another wave of pain through his system.

A low growl escaped his mouth, causing him to tense yet again. He forced himself to strangle the yell in his throat; somewhat fearing whether it would have even sounded human at all.

He forced himself to relax, grunting as he laid back into the bed. By this moment his body was sweating like if he had been running, and his respiration was hard and erratic. Koji focused on his breathing, trying to breathe as deep and slowly as his ribs would let him, in order to force himself to calm down further. Koji frowned; 'I can't remember it hurting this much last night... then again, I can't remember much of last night either...'

Carefully, he lifted his left arm, not daring to rotate his hand, in order not to move the wound. He made a meticulous check of the features of its back; no fur, no claws... trying his luck, he softly started to turn his hand, to see the palm; no pads... no blisters either. He sighted, a bit relieved.

Then, as a second thought, he reached for his head; he had just remembered, the instant when they had rolled down the cliff and in different directions, just before the chimp charged against him, he had seen his reflection on the vending place's window; the video they had shown in the vet hadn't been able to catch it, but he had seen it all to clearly. In his reflection, he had seen a pair of round furry ears

He reached for his ears, and indeed there they were; his human ears that is... He had expected as much; the fact he had woken up in his own room and not in a research facility or something like that being somewhat proof, though he had certainly doubted it for an instant when he had woken up at the vet.

Carelessly he let his arm slide back down, the movement pulling something in the wound. Once again a shot of pain jolted throughout his body; another growl escaping in between his clenched teeth

'Growling... I'm, freaking growling...' Koji huffed hardly as he tried to regain his breath and relax; still a thought kept nagging at him, not really letting him rest. 'What the hell am I...?'

'A puma...' he trailed again, remembering the second reflection he had seen in the window. 'How the hell did I end up like this?...' Koji sighed. Any normal person would have just thought of that as a dream, a hallucination; and he himself would have thought either of them, had he not seen the video, and if it weren't for his broken ribs

He could have had seen the fight, and his mind could have made it so he remembered it like he was the one fighting, 'if the mind can make you see yourself like from a third person perspective, for sure the mind can do the other way around' he had thought back then, but there is just no way an overly active imagination can explain broken ribs where the chimp had hit while being a puma... or his growling...

Deciding he wasn't going anywhere in this trail thoughts he changed his thoughts to trailing his steps at the zoo, trying to think of anything odd happening, other than the chimp escaping, to try and find the cause. 'The chimp escaping was the trigger... no, fighting it was the trigger but... I already felt different before that...'

'The moment I entered the zoo... I felt weird... but that... that was more of a gut feeling, I guess; so the zoo itself was not the cause; I mean, things like transforming just don't happened spontaneously and out of no reason...' he frowned 'but I did quite spontaneously transform...' Koji sighted heavily at this.

'When did I start feeling different?...' figuring out the zoo wasn't the cause he pondered, then he remembered, just before the fight 'I was telling Kein something' he thought hard, trying to clear the fog that clouded his memories '... a week ago... the day of the Red Data exposition', he literally felt like a light had just switched on, dispersing all the fog and clearing his doubts.

'The Red Data Exhibition! That day ...'

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Hi guys, I have been rather busy lately, don't think I had thought of abandoning this story; I just couldn't find the time to continue it (and a bit of writer's block came to me too)

However I received a really inspiring comment (guys, that's why it's good to leave comments) that chased away my writer's block, so I'm currently squeezing some time out of my days to continue

I tried describing a rainy forest, just in case my 'very wet forest' wasn't understood as one...

(I cut this line from the end of my ramble, just so you don't have to go all the way down there to find this) - Please leave your reviews, be it question, just simple comments (though I like long reviews), or even threats not to ramble as long as I just did.

-** biiiig big ramble with some educational content, read at your own discretion **-

******* about the sunset  
I'm not kidding when I say the lights went out in just half an hour; lights pass from a 'quite enough light, yet not enough to hurt' amount of light to a 'night black' in a matter of 30min to an hour tops. From the moment the sun touches the horizon, it's about 20 min till it hides completely. So to say, right now, at 5:10pm it's still rather clear, and 6:00pm it's already night, without a single trace left of daylight... and it's even faster when inside a forest, since the trees stop the already dim light to begin with.

It surprise me a looot when I have traveled to upper latitudes, that it would take hours for the sun to set, and sometimes even at 11pm the sun wouldn't have completely set, the night still rather clear... I suppose just as surprised/amazed as the other way around could be...

******* about forests, fire, and survival  
I like forests, but I certainly wouldn't manage inside one, probably not a single night. Ever heard stories where forests are mentioned as nearly mythical beings that can swallow people whole, well, welcome to the real forest.  
Such forests still exist, not a year ago I saw a poster of people looking for help to find a friend that was pretty much 'swallowed by the forest'. They never did find him

here, I got a bit carried away (ok, a lot) while describing some rainy forests I've gone to (no, I've never gotten lost in one, but it's still quite the achievement sometimes, not to fall, even when following marked trails (and not getting lost too)).

Making fire is not easy, even with matches and fire-made-easy implements, it's really hard if the wood is wet, and don't fool yourselves, if you have never even tried making fire with sticks and stones, you won't achieve it on a first, especially if you don't even know the proper way to try making one (I've tried, not life depending tries but still tried; still hasn't work...)

******* about the soil  
Ok, I must say this, I might have exaggerated a tiny bit about the soil things, since I'm not well versed in agronomy; but the fact is that, forest reserved terrain is 'reserved' because it really doesn't work for any other purpose. If you cut down the forest, you won't be able to plant there for long, since the nutritious part of the soil is only a really thin part.

Forest can persist in this kinds of terrains, only because the forest feeds itself; and that goes away when people cut it down to make plantations; since plantations (or rather farmers) don't work as efficiently in reutilizing everything, and due to the system used for plantations, where most of the earth is exposed, the fertile soil washes away rather easy.

The roots of the young trees first colonize the rich and soft soil; later, when stronger, they root into the hard clay (clay isn't sterile, it does have nutrients, just not as many as the composted black soil, it's a rather harsh soil to grow, if alone (also keeps too much water)) otherwise they would probably fall with just a breeze... here I'm mostly talking of mountain forests, not completely sure if all mountains though, nor if only counts on mountains, think it's a bit different in valley/plain forests; or at least the fertile soil tends to be a lot bigger

I'll stop here, before I end up with a chapter long ramble and or, someone decides to kill me for rambling so much...


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